AMP/SPEAKER OR COMBO?

Have been practicing with a 30 watter for over a year.Can't decide on a combo or amp/speaker cabinet,enjoy playing r&b,funk,blues some older rock.Where I live there is only two music stores not much in the way of selection,what do you recommend.

What brands do you have access to, and what models can the shop order in for you? What kind of venues are you going to be playing in? Do you have a specific price range, or are you going to get ideas, then save up for something (like me )

buying separates is a good way to grow in the future, but combos will be cheaper, but only good for smaller gigs and personal practice. how much can you spend? what do you plan to do/play in the future? I played just at home for a long time with two 12s and that was too much lowend. I now have two 10s with 350watts into 4ohms and that is pretty lound for home, practice, church bands stage monitor. it doesn't fill a room unless its less than 500 s.f. I'd say for a next step maybe get a 2x10 combo about 150w or 2x10 with separate head/amp 150w+. Avatar comes highly recommended. I'd buy another SWR Bass 350 off ebay if I had to do it again. 2x10 ($270) + $300 or $400 for a 350w head. $500-600 total?

small combo I'd recommend the SWR WM-12 $550 (new). I like the tone better than the 15 and you could always add another cab if you need more sound.

smash, I guess what I meant is for louder/bigger gigs a person probably couldn't get away with a 80w 1x10 (swr wm-10) I had a "church" situation where my wm-10 (with an extention 10!) did not cut it on stage. I was running 3/4 volume and into the p.a. and I had a hard time hearing my "monitor" (wm-10) my current church situation is similar I would not touch that stage w/o 300w and a couple of 10s, 12s or a 15.

I could not see the average 60-150w combo cutting it in a bar band. that is what I meant, I guess.

There are some pretty powerful combos out there. The GK 1001RB/210 does 460 watts with just then internal speakers. You can add a 115 cabinet to the bottom and get 700 watts out of it. Keith Horne and Baron Brown are both using the 1001RB/115 combos for gigging.

There are other offerings out there in close to the same power range as well, though I'm pretty sure the 1001 is currently the most powerful combo out there. I could be wrong.